Phase II Outreach & Public Participation Guidance Introduction Preparing a public outreach, education and participation campaign is probably a step in a whole new direction for most stormwater professionals, so here s a primer to get you started. For more details and resources, visit the Toolkit available on DENR s stormwater Web site, www.ncstormwater.org. Vocabulary Like any field, marketers and advertisers use a few unique terms, so let s start with a bit of vocabulary. Message The message is what you want to say to the audience. There are two main types: awareness (did you know) and action (I want you to ). For example, most N.C. residents don t know stormwater is not treated. Convey this and you have an awareness message. Asking an audience to do something, like get a soil test or pick up pet waste, is an action message. People don t act unless they are aware, so concentrate on awareness or mix awareness and action messages. Audience The audience is who you want to reach. It could be the entire population or a special group, known as your target. Target audiences can be grouped by age, gender, occupation or any number of attributes. Some examples of stormwater targets are Hispanic peoples, pet walkers, home oil changers and lawn fertilizers. For more details, see the N.C. Stormwater survey. Reach Usually expressed as a percentage, this number tells you how many people your message reached in your general or target audience. Frequency Frequency refers to the number of times the audience hears your message in a given period of time. Optimal frequencies range from 3 to 12. Messages you only hear once do not get remembered; if you can t reach an audience at least three times in a two to thirteen week period, don t bother. Messages heard more than 12 times are wasted in the sense you do not need more reinforcement. Rating Points Rating points are used in broadcast media like radio and TV. Each point represents 1 percent of a given audience. If your population is 100 people and 40 of them receive your message, that s 40 rating points. Populations vary, so a point in one area differs from a point in another area. Use media vendors or U.S. Census data to determine your population. Cost-Per-Point (CPP) CPP is the price you paid to deliver your message to one percent of the audience. Prices per ad vary per show, time of day and media outlet, so calculate an average. Divide the average unit cost of your buy by the number of rating points received to determine your cost-per-point.
Circulation Used in print media like newspapers and magazines, circulation tells you the number of copies that were printed and distributed. Just because your ad is in the paper, don t assume every reader saw it. And just because there is only one paper, don t assume there is only one reader; households typically share. Individual media outlets know more about their audience, so ask about readership per section and how many typically use each copy of their publication. Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) CPM is used by print media to express the cost of creating 1,000 messages. Used as an efficiency measure like CPP. Impressions Like a headcount, an impression describes how many times your message was received. Good for summaries because it accommodates print (circulation numbers), broadcast (points, average quarter hour viewers/listeners), outdoor advertising (drive bys,) and events (participants.) Specialty In brief, specialty advertising items are stuff with your name and message on them that you give away. Think refrigerator magnets, keychains, coffee mugs and pens. Ideally the items are chosen so they will be used. T-shirts don t spread the word well if they stay in a closet, for example. Exposure Exposure is usually described in terms of reach and frequency. This excerpt demonstrates the concept well. Seth Godin in his book Permission Marketing uses an analogy of seeds and water to demonstrate the importance of assuring adequate frequency in your promotional campaigns. If you were given 100 seeds with enough water to water each seed once would you plant all 100 seeds and water each one once or would you be more successful if you planted 25 seeds and used all of the water on those 25 seeds? While intuitively and even conceptually we understand the importance of frequency to successful promotional and sales campaigns, somehow when it comes to actually implementing the campaign, we opt to sacrifice frequency for reach. And then we complain about the ineffectiveness of our promotional efforts. Undoubtedly one of the biggest wastes of marketing dollars is promotional activities that are implemented without adequate frequency. When faced with the decision of mailing one direct mail piece to 10,000 people or mailing to 2,500 people four times think about the fate of those 100 seeds you can water only once. Unless you have water rights and can obtain additional water, opt for less reach and more frequency.
Planning the Campaign Permits are annual, but media is typically planned in 13-week blocks. Even if you do not advertise each week, make four 13-week plans and just add up the numbers when your annual reporting period ends. Research shows optimal campaign lengths range from two to thirteen weeks. Here is a worksheet or feel free to create your own. If you use more than one media in a single campaign, treat reach and frequency as aggregates. You may reach 30 percent of the audience with radio and 20 percent with print, which would give you a 50 percent reach over one campaign block. Frequency must be confined to the 2-13 week campaign period, but reach may be spread over the year. In other words, you may have one 13 week campaign with a frequency of three and a reach of 20 percent and still achieve a 50 percent overall rating by year s end. However, you cannot treat frequency the same way for the simple reason that people forget over time. Media Choice and Measurement Now that your campaign has run, it is time to see if what you were promised was delivered. National news, sports tournaments and even a weather crisis can throw off broadcasters schedules, so be sure to use final numbers and not those on the proposal. Broadcast Print Electronic Outdoor Events Free TV and radio reach large groups efficiently, but cost more. Radio offers more targeting ability, but TV reaches larger audiences. Measure by: reach and frequency, impressions, average quarter hour persons Newspapers, magazines, newsletters, brochures, inserts and more. Measure by: reach and frequency, circulation Internet, downloadable presentation, podcast, streaming media Measure by: site visitors, download counts Billboards, kiosks, bus shelters. Often seen many times by the same people. Measure by: reach and frequency, drive-by counts Trade shows, festivals, trainings, community meetings, stream cleans Measure by: participant numbers or attendance. To calculate reach, divide the attendee number by the population number. News coverage in any media, your Web site items added to another s Web page Measure by: Apply the measures above depending on the media where you get coverage and add them to your campaign total. Remember, your story may air more than once on cable and news/talk radio.
Here is an example of how to apply media measures to free coverage. Example: Your stream clean event drew 50 participants and received local TV and newspaper coverage. The paper s circulation is 20,000 and the TV station s newscast earns 12 rating points. Your permitted area holds 100,000 people so Event 50 (Reach =.002; frequency = 1) Print 20,000 (Reach =.20; frequency = 1) TV 12,000 (Reach =.12; frequency = 1) But wait! You got lucky. The TV station aired your story at both 6 and 11. Multiply the TV impression count of 12,000 by two. TV 24,000 (Reach =.24; frequency = 2) You are really on a on a roll, now. The Associated Press distributed the story to other papers and five choose to run it the next day. If the paper circulates in your permit area, it counts on your permit. You can increase the frequency number by the number of publications, but you will need to contact the paper for their circulation numbers to create a reach number. Papers outside of your area that are located in another permitted area count on that area s permit, just as any of their outreach falling in your geographic area can be counted on yours. Reporting Note You do not have to create the exposure to count it, but it does have to happen in your area. Regardless of media choice, the state recommends your annual campaign reach a minimum of 50 percent of your chosen audience.
DENR has come up with a method to determine this number, but we would like to know your thoughts on this methodology. Also, we want you to know that if you have another, valid way to reach the same figure, please propose this method to the state for approval. Here is an example of the methodology. Imagine your Phase II entity chipped in to a buy made by your council of government. The TV (or radio) station signal covers the entire COG area (including your town), so what is your share of the total impressions? First, you need to get some figures about the media buy. 1) Buy reach refers to the percent of the total audience that saw your ad. 2) Buy frequency refers to how many times the viewer/listener saw/heard your ad. Next, you need to determine the estimated population in your permit boundaries AND the population in your sphere of influence. This number is one you ll have to estimate, the media outlet won t have it! Now you are ready to calculate the data you need for your permit. For example purposes, imagine the buy reached 50 percent of the audience (reach) an average of three times (frequency). First, enter your estimated population (including sphere of influence) and multiply it by the reach number. Then, take that number and multiply it by the frequency. The result is the impression count for your area. Example: Population = 100,000 (including sphere of influence); reach = 50% or 50/100; frequency is 3. Population x reach x frequency = your area s impressions OR 100,000 x 50/100 x 3 = 150,000. Your area s impressions = 150,000.
Pulling It Together Stormwater problems differ by area, however every audience in the state needs to receive the awareness message that stormwater is not treated. Action messages should address concerns specific to your area (e.g., sediment, pesticide, pet waste, used oil). 1) For action messages, determine your target audience (pet walkers, home oil changers, lawn fertilizers) 2) Discover the media your target already uses (e.g., Hispanic radio, veterinary newsletters, cable news/talk) 3) Create or use an existing message that suits the media choice. 4) Work with media vendors to plan a two to 13 week campaign. You should use a mix of media over the year because your audience does. 5) Ensure each campaign delivers a frequency of three to 12 times. At minimum, this could be one TV commercial, one print ad and one radio ad or three of any one item reaching your target. If you can t reach 50 percent of the audience in one campaign block, remember you should try to do so by the end of your reporting year. 6) Measure your campaign as you go, especially news coverage. Vendors you pay are happy to supply this data, but the vendors you do not hire are not as willing to check into ratings six months back for no commission.
Campaign Planning Worksheet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Print Radio TV Web Direct Mail Outdoor Event News Specialty